For the record, Paul Krugman is not evil, he is not the Devil

http://youtu.be/hQnOC0L8pWc
(David Cassidy asks the fateful question at 3:01)
—-
Reagan WH staffer Bruce Bartlett and Bush WH staffer David Frum open up about the painful first step of recovery for every Republican (I’ll admit it, I had to hit rock bottom too).

Bartlett:For the record, no one has been more correct in his analysis and prescriptions for the economy’s problems than Paul Krugman. The blind hatred for him on the right simply pushed me further away from my old allies and comrades.

Frum:For the record, I’ve come to the same painfully embarrassing conclusion about Krugman. It has not been a fun thing to admit.

For the record, Paul Krugman is not evil, he is not the Devil. Ever since the economy hit the wall 4 years ago, no one has been more right about economic policy than Krugman. For Republicans, accepting reality starts with accepting that fact. We’ll just need to find a new arch-villain.

Krugman would do much good if he opened up about his own dark secret– when he was young and irresponsible, he too worked in the Reagan White House (under CEA chair Martin Feldstein). If Krugman has a picture of himself shaking hands with the Gipper, at a WH staff holiday party, say, he really should post it on his site. It might induce a lethal dose of cognitive dissonance in some, but that’s a risk we should be willing to take. Its what the Gipper would want.

UPDATE: General Krugman shows Grant-like magnanimity.Anyway, I have in the past been a bit hard on Bartlett, wondering why it took him so long to see the obvious. But never mind that: he has shown character, in a nation where that is hard to find.